Microsoft has announced that their Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets will be available at a discounted price for WPC attendees. The company’s annual World Partner conference will offer a Surface RT 64 GB with touch cover for $99 and a Surface Pro 128GB for $399.

Don’t get too excited though, a ticket to access all of WPC 2013 will cost you $2,000. The conference this year is hosted at the Toyota Center in Houston Texas from July 7th to July 11th. Over five hundred speakers will be present including Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft is working hard to put their Surface tablet in the hands of their partners – which in, turn should drum up developer interest.

If you can’t get out to WPC 2013 or/and don’t have $2,000 to drop on a ticket, we wouldn’t worry. With Microsoft selling the Surface for $199 to schools and now giving them away for $99 at WPC, it is more likely that a new Surface device is right around the corner with Windows 8.1.

Reader comments

At Microsoft Tech Ed... you could buy a tradeshow pass for $150 and take advantage of the Surface deal...

The Commons Expo only day passes for Monday through Thursday can be purchased for US$395 each.

This pass includes admission to the The Commons Expo Hall; including Microsoft and Partner Sponsor and Exhibitor Booths, WPC Conference Store, the wireless network and CommNet stations.

So... you could buy a day pass and take advantage of this deal. Your total cost would be about $900. You could fire sale the RT for $500 with the touch cover bringing the cost of your pro down to $400. Alternatively... you could firesale the Pro for $900 bringing your cost for the RT to $0... plus hotel and gas and potentially flight.

My friend was there, and bought both the RT and Pro. His wife posted on FB as one of them was now hers. I offered to buy it, but she's already diggin' it, so I guess that's cool. Too many people dish on Win tablets without ever trying one.

Perhaps I'm understanding of confusing this with build. My brother's brother-in-law goes to seemingly all of these types of conferences and comes back with lots of free goodies. In addition to the cost of putting on the conference, I reckon some is offsetting the cost of the goodie bag(s). I reckon the $2,000 has very little (not necessarily nothing) to do with buying an extra device on top of everything else you are getting. Either my experiences and those in my former profession are unique or it is quite common for there to be fees associated with attending conferences. That said, my employer has always covered the cost so I've never really been aware other than being told, "I'll cover the cost if you want to go".

Haha, I completely understand. My brother in law lives in Houston and we were both very actively looking for a good deal on one of these. If its possible, I would very greatly appreciate it, and dinner would be on me.